The 2019 MLB Draft is underway, and we’ll track the first-round picks as they come in. Rather than breaking things up as we have in the past, we’ll just track everything before the 2nd round in this post. This year, there are 32 true first-round picks, followed by a pair of compensation picks and seven competitive balance selections.
Here are the picks:
- Baltimore Orioles: Adley Rutschman, C, Oregon State University
- Kansas City Royals: Bobby Witt Jr., SS, Colleyville Heritage HS (TX)
- White Sox: Andrew Vaughn, 1B, University of California
- Marlins: JJ Bleday, OF, Vanderbilt University
- Tigers: Riley Greene, OF, Hagerty HS (FL)
- Padres: C.J. Abrams, SS, Blessed Trinity Catholic HS (GA)
- Reds: Nick Lodolo, LHP, Texas Christian University
- Rangers: Josh Jung, 3B, Texas Tech University
- Braves: Shea Langeliers, C, Baylor University
- Giants: Hunter Bishop, OF, Arizona State University
- Blue Jays: Alek Manoah, RHP, West Virginia University
- Mets: Brett Baty, 3B, Lake Travis HS (TX)
- Twins: Keoni Cavaco, 3B, Eastlake HS (CA)
- Phillies: Bryson Stott, SS, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
- Angels: Will Wilson, SS, North Carolina State University
- Diamondbacks: Corbin Carroll, OF, Lakeside HS (WA)
- Nationals: Jackson Rutledge, RHP, San Jacinto JC (TX)
- Pirates: Quinn Priester, RHP, Cary-Grove HS (IL)
- Cardinals: Zack Thompson, LHP, University of Kentucky
- Mariners: George Kirby, RHP, Elon University
- Braves: Braden Shewmake, SS, Texas A&M University
- Rays: Greg Jones, SS, University of North Carolina-Wilmington
- Rockies: Michael Toglia, 1B, University of California-Los Angeles
- Indians: Daniel Espino, RHP, Georgia Premier Academy (HS)
- Dodgers: Kody Hoese, 3B, Tulane University
- Diamondbacks: Blake Walston, LHP, New Hanover HS (NC)
- Cubs: Ryan Jensen, RHP, Fresno State
- Brewers: Ethan Small, LHP, Mississippi State
- Athletics: Logan Davidson, SS, Clemson
- Yankees: Anthony Volpe, SS, Delbarton School (NJ)
- Dodgers: Michael Busch, 1B, University of North Carolina
- Astros: Korey Lee, C, Cal
- Diamondbacks: Brennan Malone, RHP, IMG Academy (FL; compensatory pick)
- Diamondbacks: Drey Jameson, RHP, Ball State (compensatory pick)
- Marlins: Kameron Misner, OF, Missouri (Competitive Balance Round A)
- Rays: JJ Goss, RHP, Cypress Ranch HS (TX; Competitive Balance Round A)
- Pirates: Sammy Siani, OF, William Penn Charter School (PA; Competitive Balance Round A)
- Yankees: TJ Sikkema, LHP, Missouri (Competitive Balance Round A)
- Twins: Matt Wallner, OF, Southern Mississippi (Competitive Balance Round A)
- Rays: Seth Johnson, RHP, Campbell University (Competitive Balance Round A)
- Rangers: Davis Wendzel, 3B, Baylor (Competitive Balance Round A)
wont stay there…. probably follow the Schwarber model….
Not even close to accurate.
really?? scouting reports are huge bat…poor receiver and defensive catcher….aka scouting grades of 65 offensively….40 as a catcher defensively…
@nockahoma….I think priggs meant that he wouldn’t follow the schwarber model of winning a world series ring so quickly.
I have no idea what reports you are reading, but I’d recommend looking somewhere else.
What? He has both a 60 arm and 60 field. Before trying to make hot takes like that make sure you know the facts.
Cite your sources bruh. This is a foolish take without em lol
@mike127… Yes, that’s exactly what I meant. Not many guys can have 5 plate appearances in the regular season and win a World Series. He really carried that bum team.
m.mlb.com/prospects/2019/?list=draft.
@nockahoma
What a silly comment. His defense is what put him as the #1 draft prospect (of course along with his bat). MLB.com has his arm at 60 and field at 60. Not sure how that equates to 40 defensively.
i heard he was a pretty good catcher actually. i dont know where your info is coming from.
His defense is just as good as his bat, why would they move him?
Rated the best Catching prospect in 30 years. What the hell are you going on about?
Where did u see that!?!
He’s obviously supposed to be good, but Bart last year was just as highly rated if I remember correctly
Don’t get caught in the hyperbole cycle that everyone in sports does now
The latest is not always actually the greatest
Maybe all around Rutschman has more tools but Bart has much more offensive potential.
I’ve seen from every prospect analyst as well as most reporters for MLB such as Passan that he is the best prospect since Harper.
Quote from Baseball America twitter, “Plenty of scouts think he’s the best draft prospect since Bryce Harper.”
In a weak draft class like this, the top few prospects start to become way overhyped come draft day. The way they’re hyping Witt J.R. as the next Arod and Rutschman as the next Harper, when it reality there was nowhere near the amount of hype Machado/Harper/Arod/Buxton/Greene etc. Those players were much more anticipated. Can they be the next Arod/Harper? Sure but there was much more anticipation for Harper/Machado, even Taillon and Swanson had comparisons like this.
How does Bart have “much more” offensive potential? I’d argue the exact opposite. If you look at their college careers, Adley’s last 2 years were better than anything Bart ever did in college. Better at hitting for average, better at getting on base, and better at hitting for power (Bart is at least close here). He also doesn’t have the strikeout concerns Bart has.
They’re both excellent prospects, but Adley is no doubt the better prospect coming out of college.
Swanson now leads the Braves in RBIs. And, each year his hair gets even more impressive. If anything, he was under-hyped, just factoring in the hair alone.
RBIs is a pointless stat. I agree that he’s improving, but RBI’s is a measure of the team’s ability to get on base.
Well, to be fair, it’s not really hard to hit .230 in the majors like Harper.
Thank you Johnny Superscout
Bobby Witt, Jr. – oh man. The kids of all the guys I grew up watching are playing now, so I’m just going to go over here & let old age tear me apart.
Verlander2TheQuickening
Just think how those of us who watched Carl Yastrzemski play feel. His GRANDSON is now in the MLB….sighs.
I forgot about that! I caught the tail end of Yaz’s career, only a few years before Bobby Witt’s MLB debut with the Rangers!
I was doing just fine
Thanks emac22……I just spit iced tea on my keyboard but I guess I deserve that.
College baseball hitter *exists. White Sox “Im bout to start this mans whole career”
lmao
Erbody wan dis!
Andrew Vaughn LEGO!
can’t wait for the 32 false picks
What do you all think of JJ Bleday?
He’s unfortunately going to Miami lol
That’s ok, they’ll trade him off as soon as he makes the majors…
Yes! I was afraid Hahn was going to try and get cute and stupid with the pick. I would’ve loved to see AR fall to us, but we got once again possibly the best bat in the draft in Vaughn. Nice work, Hahn & Co.
Nice work? Lol
@SuperSinker
Good, you picked up on the sarcasm there. I was wondering if anyone would notice that.
I have seen JJ bleday in person and my man can stroke. As for how he will do under the Marlins development system….
Jeter will gift him to the Yankees.
I like Greene to the Tigers, wish Miami would’ve let Bleday fall one more pick though.
It was a win/win. Bleday probably fits the time frame better, but Greene (or Abrams) was a nice consolation prize.. Now, let’s tank for Torkelson..
Why do you like Riley Greene? The Tigers have had their eyes on him all through his teens. Although I’m fond of defensive players, I like 5th rounder OF Bryant Packard. He can really hit. I just hope the Tigers can find his ideal position on the field.
Well, this top 6 was about as predictable as could be.
Which is fine. I saw the rumors about the Sox possibly wanting Baty. Thank goodness that didn’t happen. It would’ve been nice to get AR, but Vaughn is no slouch.
Definitely not complaining. I love the pick. Can’t wait to see him and Madrigal joing Moncada. and Anderson in the infield.
Should probably tell Madrigal to start hitting better in High-A before you go penciling him in
K. I’ll let him know SuperSinker thinks he can’t hit next time I talk to him.
He’s batting .345 with two HRs, 10 runs scored and nine SBs over his last 13 games. He’s only struck out six times in 200 plate appearances so far. Hmm… looks good to me. You must be a cubs fan.
Potential Gold Glove at 2B in addition to his high hit and run tools. His baseball IQ and instincts for the game are also exceptional. Madrigal will slot in very nicely as a prototypical #2 bat between future leadoff hitter Luis Robert and either Yoan Moncada or Andrew Vaughn in the 3-hole with Eloy Jimenez batting 4th or 5th.
It’s interesting to note that both Madrigal and Vaughn were considered the best pure hitters in each of the last two drafts. Each are considered exceptional contact hitters who rarely SO and walk more than they whiff, attributes that buck the trend in today’s era of big swings and lots of misses. Each also employ a leg kick as a timing mechanism before each pitch. If they continue this success at the MLB level they might launch a new trend in the game, something this 64-year old fan would love to see once again after witnessing last season’s notorious historic feat that produced more strike outs than hits. The White Sox were most responsible in setting an MLB record for most whiffs in a season. That should change come 2020/2021 with the debuts of Madrigal and Vaughn.
@SuperSinker
LOL Silly comment. Yes, Madrigal’s reached his peak already, there’s no chance of him improving from here on, because players generally level out at 22. They’re usually washed up by the time they reach 25.
There’s never a shortage of idiotic comments on these message boards, and I think you just made the Idiotic Comment of the Day. Congrats. LOL
Abrams speed is ridiculous.
He plus Xavier Edwards (it he doesn’t stick at SS/2B) and Buddy Reed give the Padres a lot of of a speedsters all capable of playing CF in the future.
Make that 2 catchers in the top 10 and so far only one pitcher taken
Bishop at 10 is a steal
Bishop could be the Giants best OF already lol
I wish that was a joke.
I feel this… throw him straight into High A haha
Who was expecting Josh Jung at #8?
I’m a Texas guy, I was expecting him or the kid Cincy got at #7. We are stacked with outfielders at A ball so not too surprised here.
I’m just a Red Sox fan so I don’t know that much about the Rangers farm system other than the fact that Yohander Mendez and Willie Calhoun looks like a bust. blogs.fangraphs.com/mock-draft-4-1-the-final-mock/
haha yeah he hasen’t worked out. Apparently doesn’t have a great attitude either. I thing Jung is a logical choice because we need an advanced corner infielder/bat and he is a local kid.
Yeah, they could also use some help from the independent leagues as well, not to mention the ABL and other foreign leagues.
So who did Jeff Wilpon choose?
Some poor kid that didn’t graduate high school until he was nearly 20 years old, and then thanked his mom for doing laundry during his post-draft interview.
some 19 yr old kid.. he has some pop on his bat.. with decent batting avg.. only .640.. NOT Too bad..
Wow bishop at 10? The giants should just call him up right now, he’d probably be our best OF.
angels pick a ss that’s going to play second? don’t they need pitching?
they need a better training staff first. cant contend when your entire rotation is on the IL.
It’s not their training staff. Pitching injuries are rampant all over baseball. From MLB, all the way to the youth levels. The days of the durable starter are all but over. With the game getting deeper and deeper into analytics, and arm injuries continuing to rise, it’s a big possibility that pitching staffs will be more of a lottery in the coming years.
Did you notice that there’s almost no pitchers on this list? Every organization needs pitching. But young pitching is also experiencing a major epidemic of arm injuries. Not much pitching in this draft. And organizations don’t draft based on need any way. They pick the best possible player that they like.
he is not even the best defensive ss that were left. he’s got good bat but he needs to move to second because of lack of defense according to baseball america
Ok why didn’t the Bluejays take Rutledge – signability? Manoah is projected as a reliever (good one) not a starter and we need Starters desperately. I don’t understand this.
Couple other teams passed on him too. Could be a sign. Jays used pick to take first RHP in the draft. We’ll see.
Why do you say he projects as a RP? Hasn’t he been starting since 2018? 144k’s in 108 IP with only 25BB. I like the pick.
The MLB Draft Video by Smoltz and the panel of experts said he projected as a reliever. Too big a guy, won’t have enough “balance on the mound”. Lacks third or fourth pitch.
I just heard about the lack of the third pitch but he is working on the change up. I am not worried about the size. Worked for guys like David Wells is this guy seems more built. He can also do something with the slider differently against righties or lefties that makes it effective against both. The best thing is they probably save money on the first pick allowing them to afford a better player in the next rounds.
Pirates just got a steal with P Quinn Priester….good news for Tampa fans, since the Bucs will trade him to the Rays next year for Jake Faria…….
My team, the cardinals, drafted a pitcher with injury concerns, sounds about right since our starters are always hurt. Will fit right in
Ya, what a shame they are trying to fix their left handed pitching deficiency by drafting the best lefty available…
Every pitcher is an injury concern
tinstaapp…
See: Walker Buehler
Saw some video of Will Wilson. One of the best hitters among middle infielders in this draft. Sounds like he’ll be an offense first second baseman in the future.
Vaughn I think could be the best player. A power firstbaseman for a youmg and upcoming Whitesox team. Future looks good on the South Side.
First baseman in the first round? That used to be heresy!
Shewmake was projected to be pick #50 in the last mock draft by Fangraphs. Looks like the Braves made an error.
Braves didnt pick a pitcher with either of their top two picks – how?
Or maybe Fangraphs isn’t the be all end all of rankings? Plus, pretty much from the late first round on, it’s all about draft pool money.
Cubs with the reach of the draft
They seem to be doing that the last few years. Both pitchers they took in the first round 2 years ago were reaches and have been pretty meh
Yeah, I’d feel a lot better about Theo + Co. reaching if it was for a hitter…
You bash him when he trades Torres for a few months of Chapman and then you bash him when he uses a first round pick on a relief guy.
How is he supposed to build a bullpen?
Not really sure how calling it a reach is “bashing him.” He very well could turn into a good player, but that doesn’t make the pick a good value.
And I’d recommend building a bullpen by developing prospects in the minors (later drafted relief prospects and failed starters) and/or paying them in free agency – especially since the Cubs print money and all. I don’t think trading elite talent for rentals is a sustainable way to build a bullpen, and I don’t think using your only first round pick to draft a reliever is a good use of resources. But hey, you know what they say about opinions…
I was joking.
But I agree with your second paragraph.
Fangraphs had Jensen going 42 to Baltimore. I don’t think it was quite the reach you’re thinking here. He wasn’t going to be around by the time they were up again and if they liked him well then hey make your pick. Should be a lock to go underslot here as well. Theo/Hoyer like their college guys a whole lot as well.
Anyway. I can’t have much of an opinion on these guys at this point. After your top guys go it’s a complete crapshoot. Jensen was pegged at 42 by fangraphs and that was the highest I saw him. But it’s too tough to know at this point. If you’re inclined to believe FG was right in how other teams valued him he wouldn’t have been around for the cubs next pick and would’ve been off the board within the next 15.